_Provincial Glossaries._--In an article in the 79th volume of the
_Edinburgh Review_, on the provincialisms of the European languages, the
writer says:

"There are some very copious early English vocabularies lying in
manuscript in the Cathedral libraries of Durham, Winchester, and
Canterbury; in the British Museum, King's College, and other
depositories, deserving collection."

Will any of your learned readers inform me of the dates of the MSS.
referred to, and by whom the collections were made? I would recommend them
to the notice of the Camden Society.

FRA. MEWBURN.

_Chadderton of Nuthurst, co. Lancaster._--What crest did this family bear,
and when did the family become extinct?

J. B.

_A marvellous Combat of Birds._--In the _Phoenix Britannicus_, by J.
Morgan, London, 4to., p. 250.[2], there is an account of--

"The wonderful battle of stares (or starlings), fought at Cork on
Saturday 12th, and Monday 14th, October, 1621."

And this narration relates, that on the Sunday, October 13, the intervening
day, the starlings absented themselves to fight at Woolwich, in Kent!!

Without vouching for the fact, or calling in question the prowess of this
"Irish Brigade," I leave it to be confirmed or refuted by any reader of the
"N. & Q."--_comme bon lui semblera_.

[Greek: S].

P. S.--I would, _a propos_ to the above subject, thank any reader of your
miscellany to point out to me a work by a M. Hanhart (I believe is the
name), which I think is upon _Les Moeurs des Fourmis indigenes_, in which
are given some particulars of regular conflicts between ants. I am not
aware of the exact title of the book, but I have seen an account of it in
some Edinburgh periodical, if I am not mistaken.

[Footnote 2: At p. 252. of the same article is an account of the battle of
the gnats, noticed by MR. E. W. JACOB.--ED.]

_Battle of the Gnats._--In reading Stowe's _Chronicles of England_, I hit
upon the following passage recorded in the reign of King Richard II., p.
509.:

"A fighting among gnats at the King's Maner of _Shine_, where they were
so thicke gathered, that the ayre was darkned with them: they fought
and made a great battaile. Two partes of them being slayne, fel downe
to the grounde; the thirde parte hauing got the victorie, flew away, no
man knew whither. The number of the deade was such that might be swepte
uppe with besomes, and bushels filled weyth them."

This